Dark Black Forest
by Curiosity Inc
Summary: A 5-chapter story based on the song "Dark Black Forest." Not to be confused with Dark Amystika's story. First-time writer.
1. The Village

Disclaimer: The characters, the plot and the terminology are all mine. The song was done by Steve Rhyner and is not mine. This story has absolutely no relation to Dark Amystika's story of almost the same name. M. Night Shyamalan is coming out with a movie called "The Village" with a plot that seems to resemble this fic. I swear on a stack of Bibles that this is coincidental.  
  
Dedications: First and foremost, I want to dedicate this to my beta- readers, rythmeck and bobo3. Dedications also go to KamikazeCreamPuff and Megumi, the Absconding One for introducing me to fanfiction.net. I also want a dedication and an apology to go towards Dark Amystika. My hatred for her take on the song is what inspired me to write this. And so, without further ado, welcome to my twisted little wonderland.  
  
Chapter 1: The Village  
  
Mrs. Brenner had fallen ill. Actually, "ill" didn't quite do the situation justice, but what else could it have been called? Her skin was starting to erupt in dark green boils, and she couldn't move a single joint in her body. It seemed that no one had ever seen such a disease, let alone its cure, in all of the villages.  
  
She was ill, and there was a reason: the Dark Black Forest.  
  
Mrs. Brenner had been walking along the stream bordering the Forest one day. She was even on the right side of the Painted Bridge, as any sane person would have been. And then she heard something. A rather bizarre, almost musical noise like a sharp intake of breath. The next thing she knew, something had grazed her shoulder. She only barely managed to get back to the village before her joints stiffened and she fell over with those boils. A few villagers helped Mr. Brenner carry his wife to bed, just before they learned that the mystery illness was contagious.  
  
The bottom line is that there was an epidemic to be cured there. So, the villagers did what anyone would do, and immediately asked the village doctor for help. Luckily for them, he knew what was wrong.  
  
Rumor had it that Dr. Alexander Lync was the only person to have gone into the Dark Black Forest and survived. He did certainly have the strong, mountainous look of the type who could survive such a dangerous place. Unfortunately, he most likely started the rumor, and he refused to describe his experiences in the Forest, which gave everyone the impression that he was a little crazy. However, the villagers had to deal with him, since he was the only doctor in the village. That is, unless you count Holly.  
  
Anyway, Lync came over to the town hall to tell the mayor what he knew. With him, as always, was his redheaded thirteen-year-old apprentice, Holly Brenner. No one knew exactly why Lync had chosen Holly as his apprentice doctor. After all, most doctors weren't women in this particular time and place. However, most doctors assumed that their patients were inferior and knew virtually nothing about their illnesses. Lync didn't have that attitude, and neither did Holly.  
  
Holly waited outside as Lync spoke with the mayor in the village hall. Lync had warned her that the meeting could turn ugly very quickly. She didn't know why, but she was glad to have some time alone to think things over. At least she had some bit of comfort to hold onto: Lync had known what was plaguing Holly's parents and those villagers that tried to help them. Apparently it was called "Bloodbarb poisoning" and Lync knew about the antidote.  
  
Holly was puzzled by this. "Why does that involve going to the Mayor's office? God forbid Master Lync was lying about the antidote."  
  
Luckily, she was spared any further thought of her parents' death as Lync bursted through the door.  
  
"Come along, Holly," Lync said. "We have some preparation to do."  
  
"Are we getting the antidote?"  
  
"Yes, but we're going home first."  
  
It killed Holly to go home at a time like this, but Lync had said that they were getting the antidote. Lync had been an honest teacher to Holly for the past several years, so she tried to stay patient.  
  
Holly followed Lync to his house, which contained one room, one closet and a roof. Lync was never much for extravagances, and his house was definite proof.  
  
"Get a couple of bags," Lync told her.  
  
Holly knew better than to ask why, so she rooted around the house. She came back to Lync with a pair of leather rucksacks. Lync began filling them with bread loaves and glass bottles. The bottles seemed filled with water to Holly, but some of them looked empty. When the sacks were filled, he went over to his corner of the house.  
  
"Come here, Holly."  
  
She did, of course. "I have some gifts for you. We'll both need them."  
  
He reached into a drawer and took out what appeared to be a large, rectangular piece of wood. "This is called a Dictionary."  
  
It didn't look like a book at all to Holly, but it was obviously important. Just the way he said 'Dictionary' seemed to say that it was no ordinary list of words. Anyway, Lync continued.  
  
"If you put your hand on it, like this," He spread his hand out across the piece of wood, and took his hand off again, "you can understand any language." He handed the Dictionary to Holly, who took it, trying to hide her new belief that her master truly was crazy.  
  
Lync rummaged around his belongings again, this time coming up with a locked, metal box and a key. "If you ever get into trouble while we're out, open this box. It will save you from anything we'll meet tonight." Again, Holly took the items, noticing how heavy the box was. She also noticed how the box's weight seemed to shift.  
  
"What kind of trouble could we expect?" Holly asked.  
  
"It doesn't matter as long as you have that box," Lync said shortly. "Now put those in your rucksack, Holly. We're leaving."  
  
Lync and Holly set off on the trail leading out of the village. No one escorted them out. It was nighttime, and far too quiet. Even the crickets seemed to be afraid to make the smallest bit of noise.  
  
"It's a long way to go," Lync said, finally breaking the silence.  
  
"I know," Holly replied. "But I'm afraid. Where are we going?"  
  
His response was the last thing Holly wanted to hear:  
  
"Into the Dark Black Forest."  
  
A/N: So, if you like what you read, keep going. If not, go ahead and read something else. Either way, please review. 


	2. Over the Painted Bridge

Chapter 2: Over the Painted Bridge  
  
After a while of silent walking, Lync and Holly came to the Painted Bridge; the gateway into the Dark Black Forest. Many village children had grown up with nightmares, imagining what horrors could possibly be in the pitch black on the other side of the black-painted Bridge. Holly was no exception.  
  
Lync stood still for a second or two, almost as if he was fighting back fear, or something to that extent. "You must be very quiet when we go in, Holly. That Forest can kill you in a hundred different ways." Holly nodded, understanding.  
  
Then they crossed the bridge. Holly was half-expecting all of her nightmares to come true at that very instant.  
  
But they didn't.  
  
Instead, Holly had lost all desire to talk or make noise, or be anything other than silent. Noise would have made that music harder to hear. That beautiful, odd music that seemed to be echoing around every tree (AN: In case you haven't already guessed, the music she's hearing is the Dark Black Forest song).  
  
Lync stopped Holly before they took another step. He pointed to one of his empty bottles and then at Holly's rucksack. She got the message and handed him a bottle. He, however, signaled for Holly to take it.  
  
Then Lync walked over to the stream they had just crossed, which had suddenly become crowded with what appeared to be small, aquatic fireflies. Lync examined the stream for a while, nodded, opened his jar and scooped up a couple dozen of the flies. Then, he crushed some nearby leaves and placed them into the jar before putting the lid on. Holly repeated the procedure.  
  
With their new makeshift lanterns, they proceeded deep into the Forest, surrounded entirely by that haunting music.  
  
For Holly, it was like a truly disturbing dream. She felt as if she was walking through an ocean of black cloth, with only a will-o-the-wisp lantern to guide her. The darkness was heavy, but the music was even heavier. "Why hasn't anyone else heard that music?" Holly wondered. "And I could have sworn that those fireflies, or whatever they were, hadn't been there before." Suddenly, Lync put a very forceful hand on Holly's shoulder.  
  
"Stop," he whispered. "Can you hear that?" Suddenly, she could. It was an odd, low-pitched thumping sound, made in a perfect rhythm. "Holly, get out of the..." But that's as far as Lync got. Holly was pushed forward with incredible force by her teacher, just before she heard a horrible ripping noise. She picked herself up off the ground, only to see the most horrible, gruesome thing she had ever had to witness.  
  
She had turned around to find a pair of wolf-like creatures with long, bristle-covered tails and great, big, tufted pointy ears. They were jumping up and down on their hind legs, creating that low-pitched rhythmic sound she was hearing. But that wasn't what scared her. What scared her was the fact that they were slashing Lync with the two-foot long claws they had on their front legs.  
  
"Master Lync!"  
  
"Holly!" Lync had tried to shout while crawling away. "Do you know why the bridge is painted?!" Those were his last words before one of the wolf-like creatures ran a claw straight through Lync's heart.  
  
Holly was frozen in shock. She wasn't for very long, though. She started running after she first noticed that the wolf-likes were hopping her way. The whole time Holly was running, she thought she would tire out before she was safe. And then she remembered the box.  
  
Maybe if she opened Lync's box, she'd be protected. Holly swung her rucksack from her shoulder and tried to get the box and the key out, all while keeping hold of the lantern. The box came out safely, and the lantern was secure... but the key fell from her grip. And then more bad news came. Holly had stopped running when she came to a long, and apparently very deep, creek. And this one had no bridge.  
  
The wolf-likes, meanwhile, were hopping in their rhythmic pattern, making their sound, every one of their pounces gaining at least eight feet. Holly ran through her options. She was stuck between bloodthirsty wolf-demons and an impassable creek, Lync's box was impossible to open, and her parents were possibly dying of a contagious disease. "What to do, what to do?!" Holly panicked. The wolf-demons pounced a final time.  
  
A shelled dolphin-like thing surfaced just behind Holly.  
  
The dolphin flipped in midair and shot two spines out from its shell, and made a direct hit at the wolf-demons' bellies. They were caught in mid- pounce, slamming them backwards to land on their backs about ten feet away. Two more spines, and the wolf-likes hopped away madly.  
  
Holly turned to face her defender. The dolphin-like thing made some humming sounds in four low, very soothing pitches. Apparently, it was trying to talk. Holly had tried to understand and reply, but with no luck. Then she remembered Lync's other gift.  
  
She got the Dictionary out of her bag and spread her hand across it, just as Lync had shown her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" she asked tentatively.  
  
Surprisingly, the dolphin-thing had talked back. "I was askin' what you were doin' here! A human all alone in the Forest is never a good thing, and gettin' mixed up with locans? Horrible, horrible, horrible."  
  
Holly waited a few seconds to make sure that the thing was done talking, and she replied. "Locans? You mean those wolf-things back there?"  
  
"Yeah. Nasty creatures. I guess your trespassin' ticked 'em off, eh?"  
  
Another brief pause. Holly had so many questions, it was hard to decide which one to ask next. "What's your name?"  
  
The dolphin-like thing gave a sort of chuckle. "We don't really 'ave names. We just tell each other apart by looks and scent. I'm one o' the Tebo species, if that's what you mean."  
  
"Species? There are others like you?"  
  
"There are others like those Locans, too. We'd better get outta 'ere before more come." The Tebo lowered its body into the water. "Climb on, but watch the spines."  
  
Holly hesitated. "Why are you helping me so much?"  
  
"I'm a water creature," Tebo replied. "I don't 'unt livin' things down for sport like those savage land beats do. I can't even chew meat. Now get on my back, before we're both lunch."  
  
There was a brustling noise behind Holly. That was enough persuasion. She got on. Once Holly was settled, Tebo took off like a shot. Holly's legs and shoes were getting thoroughly cold and soaked, but it was a small price to pay. Tebo was fast.  
  
Then, Tebo finally slowed down. Holly took the opportunity to talk. "Why did you slow down?"  
  
"We're outta their territory now. Shouldn't be as many problems." Tebo turned to look at Holly, which wasn't easy, as it had very little neck to work with. "By the way, where did you get that Dictionary?"  
  
Holly held up the piece of wood, which she was still pressing hard against. "This? My master gave it to me just before we came into the Forest. Said it might be useful."  
  
"You're gettin' talk outta me, aren't ya?" Tebo replied. "So where's your 'master'? Who are ya? What're ya doin' here? And why, oh why are ya keepin' a bottle of vites so tantalizin'ly close to me?"  
  
"Vites?" Holly asked. She held up her lantern. "You mean these glowing things?"  
  
"Not 'glowin' things.' Vites!" It was hard to tell in a creek, but Tebo's mouth could have been watering at that point. "It's so great the way they melt right in your mouth and warm your belly. I haven't been able to get hold o' any for weeks."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Other Tebos beat me to 'em. Don't suppose I could have a few?" Tebo looked as pleading as it possibly could have with so few facial muscles.  
  
Holly shrugged. It was the least she could do after all of this. So, she let a couple of vites out of the bottle. Bad move. Tebo began splashing and bucking and thrashing around trying to get every last vite.  
  
Finally, it stopped and kept swimming. "Thanks," Tebo said, completely in bliss. "So, as for my other questions?"  
  
Holly took a moment to calm down and quit panting. Hanging on to Tebo during that whole mess was tiring. "My name is Holly. My master is a... was a doctor named Alexander Lync – "  
  
Once again, Tebo almost threw Holly overboard right there. It was a miracle that she could keep hold of the Dictionary through all this. "Lync? Did you say Lync?! That nutso who came 'ere before?!"  
  
"You mean he really came into the Forest and survived?"  
  
"Yeah! Everyone in the Forest was ordered to kill the guy after he met with Niomo."  
  
Yet more questions arose. "Wait a minute. Who's this Niomo?"  
  
"He's a healer. Dang good one, too. It's cause o' him that everyone 'ere lives so long. We all listen to him, since we all owe 'im favors. So, when he told us to kill Lync, we did our best!"  
  
"But why did he want Lync killed?" Holly asked.  
  
"Lync came to Niomo for some of his Cure. But he never told Lync that there's a test for gettin' the stuff."  
  
"Getting out of the Forest alive?" Holly guessed.  
  
"You got it. But Niomo never took back his order to kill Lync."  
  
That explained the Locan attack. Holly pressed on. "You mentioned something called a Cure. What is it?"  
  
"Cures any sickness, heals any injury, lifts any poison. No one knows what's in the stuff, but some say it's made from Bloodbarb juice."  
  
The word "Bloodbarb" rang a bell with Holly. Wasn't that the thing that made her parents ill?  
  
"So, what're ya here for?" Tebo asked.  
  
Holly finally knew the answer to that. "I'm here for the Cure."  
  
Tebo shrugged its flippers. "Your funeral." 


	3. Toxes

Chapter 3: Toxes  
  
Holly and Tebo continued to coast along the stream. It was very silent, as Holly had finally put the Dictionary back into her rucksack. There was no practical reason why, she just wanted to give her hands a rest.  
  
However, it was also silent between Holly and Tebo because Holly needed to think. Even if she had figured out where she was going, how was she going to get the Cure and come back in one piece? The thought of being ripped to shreds by locans didn't exactly hold much appeal. Lync was probably depending on that box to save Holly, but that couldn't do anything now that it was locked for good.  
  
And what was with Lync's final words? "Do you know why the bridge is painted?" Holly couldn't figure that out. He had to have been referring to the Painted Bridge that led into the Forest, but it was painted for the same reason anything else was painted.  
  
"The bridge was painted so that it would have color and look good," Holly thought. "That's the reason why anything is painted. Isn't it?"  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden stop. Holly got out the Dictionary as Tebo started humming in a restrained volume.  
  
"Sorry, what?"  
  
"Ya hear that?" Tebo asked.  
  
Holly heard it, all right. Like everything else in the Forest, this new, bizarre sound had a rhythm to it, like some sort of music. It was like the sound of two handfuls of mud being squashed together, except higher-pitched and completely unnatural.  
  
"Toxes are nearby," Tebo whispered. "Don't make any sudden moves, or they'll know where to aim."  
  
"Aim?" Holly asked.  
  
"You'll see."  
  
As the squelching sound continued, Holly made it a point to stay silent. It was easy for her to do so, as Lync had trained Holly to only speak when spoken to.  
  
But as Holly looked upstream, she clearly saw a problem about ten feet away and closing. About five vites were drifting down the stream. Looking at Tebo, Holly knew that it could smell the approaching delicacies.  
  
Holly did everything she could. She wrapped her arms around Tebo's snout. She whispered to Tebo to remind it to be quiet. Unfortunately, a pair of Tebo jaws is powerful enough to crush rocks. It easily broke free of Holly's grip and proceeded to splash around, noisily gulping up every single vite.  
  
When Tebo had finally calmed down, and its human companion had recovered from hanging on for dear life, Holly had tried to look for where the sound been earlier. But before she could find it, a burning heat had passed over her ear. Holly felt to see if she was all right, and then cast her lantern around randomly.  
  
She came across what appeared to be a slender little man waist-deep in dirt. This, however, was clearly no human. Humans don't usually have bright crimson skin or milky-white eyes, and no human has two mouths, pointy ears, or a nose that was about eight inches long and pointed.  
  
Holly stared at the thing for a couple of seconds until two more toxes surfaced. All three of them threw back their heads, opened their lower mouths wide, and threw out a stream of some bizarre kind of liquid. Holly didn't know what the stuff was, but judging from its feverish heat and acidic green color, the stuff was not friendly.  
  
Luckily, Tebo had finally recovered. "Hang on, Holly!" And Tebo was off like a shot.  
  
The toxes, however, were following just as quickly. The toxes were jumping in wide arcs above the ground, submerging for a split-second only to sail through the air again. The sight of three toxes making choreographed leaps through the air would have been quite captivating; the sort of thing that one could watch for hours. Unfortunately, the show was punctured by the acidic spit sent by the toxes in mid-leap.  
  
Even more disturbing was that despite going at high speeds, despite going up and down, despite the moving targets, the creatures' aim was incredible.  
  
Holly kept feeling like she was going to faint from the heat at any moment. Tebo, meanwhile, was working itself harder than ever before. Tebo could have fired a few shots from its shell, except that firing required a midair flip, which was very difficult to do with a passenger. So, Tebo was forced to keep moving, never slowing down, weaving from side to side within the stream, hoping that it left the toxes' territory before it or Holly were burned.  
  
However, Tebo and Holly had another problem. Tebo was starting to slow down.  
  
Tebo was trying to say something to Holly. She couldn't hear anything other than a gasp that sounded like "poison."  
  
Holly had heard enough. They needed a diversion. As soon as Tebo had slowed down enough, Holly jumped ashore. She started running away from Tebo, and sure enough, she started drawing fire from the toxes.  
  
Finally, Tebo was able to take action. It flipped in midair, firing two spikes. Two toxes went down, flapping hopelessly on the ground like fishes out of water. Holly couldn't help but admire the sight.  
  
FSSSSS!  
  
"What the heck was that?" thought Holly. And then the lantern was cast on Tebo. Its blubber was melted on both sides. An arc of green acid was arching through Holly's friend. The other tox had hit its mark.  
  
"Tebo!" Holly shouted. She ran over to her friend and tried to push it back in the water. It was no use. Tebo was dead weight. Literally, dead weight.  
  
FSSSSS!  
  
Holly screamed. The acid had hit her left forearm. She smelled burning flesh and almost threw up when she saw what was on the ground.  
  
It was her left arm.  
  
She had stayed in one place for too long. She had to run and she did. She followed the creek, still racing the tox on the other side. The tox was as relentless as ever. Holly kept running, trying hard to ignore the fires in her left shoulder. Trying to ignore the feverish heat spreading throughout her body.  
  
The tox jumped. It fired. Holly dodged. She ran. "The pain, the pain..." she couldn't help thinking.  
  
Holly was getting tired. She kept running. The tox fired again. It hit Holly's ankle. She didn't have to look down to know that she had lost a foot.  
  
The pain again. She kept going.  
  
The burning was fueled.  
  
Holly couldn't run anymore  
  
The tox could.  
  
Holly heard a crystalline music.  
  
It grew steadily louder as the tox gained.  
  
Holly's world became a blur of pain and music and burning and darkness and the tox...  
  
And that burst of bright light.... 


	4. Safe Haven

AN: I just wanted to remind you that I do not own DDR or any of its songs. I also want to give you a heads-up. There are some DDR references in this chapter, so keep your eyes peeled.  
  
Chapter 4: Safe Haven  
  
There was darkness. A curtain of darkness across Holly's eyes. And there was music. The same music that Holly had heard just before....  
  
And then Holly woke up.  
  
As her eyes flew open, she was in someplace entirely new. She was surrounded by dark green vines covered in beautiful purple flowers. She was lying on a giant mushroom...  
  
And she was completely naked.  
  
Holly realized this and covered herself. It didn't matter that no one else was there, she just covered herself on instinct. But then she realized something. She looked down. "My arm," she thought. "It's... It's there." She raised her left arm. She flexed her fingers and looked at it closely. Every birthmark, every hair, every fingernail, every palm line was exactly like the arm that was... "That was burned off by the tox."  
  
Holly looked down again. Her foot was there as well. She was sure that was the same foot that she lost just a while ago. Or was it just a while ago?  
  
Before Holly could think further, something caught her eye. It seemed to be on the other side of her vine-grown curtain. Holly climbed down from her mushroom bed and onto soft, springy grass. She approached the curtain, and reached out to push it aside.  
  
But she hesitated. The music seemed to be coming from over there. Holly was apparently still in the Dark Black Forest, and whatever made music in the Forest probably wasn't friendly. But this whole place was full of light! Holly didn't need the lantern to cut through the pitch black anymore, and everyone knew that the Forest was heavy with darkness. Something didn't add up, but Holly figured that the only way to get answers was to leave the curtained area. But, just to be safe, Holly took a few minutes to artfully drape her long hair in front of her breasts, just in case someone else was there.  
  
So, Holly pulled back the curtain. All she saw was paradise. Immediately in front of her was a fountain with inlaid jewels and intricate carvings of marble, filled with crystal clear water. Trees completely surrounded the fountain, going up into the sky as far as Holly could see. The water from the fountain fed a large stream leading out of the circle... and into sheer darkness.  
  
Holly turned away, focusing instead on the smaller trees dotting the paradise, offering pears and oranges and apples. Holly took a pear and sampled it. Her whole mouth instantly flooded with a taste that was riper and sweeter than anything Holly had ever known.  
  
This Eden was very small, but Holly couldn't stop wandering around and taking in everything. Under normal circumstances, the taste of the fruit and the tickling of the grass under her bare feet would have been heavenly, but with the crystalline, music, it became nothing short of dreamlike.  
  
And then Holly felt something under her feet. It felt like wood. She took a step back and looked down. It was a rectangular piece of wood with a hand- shaped imprint on it. A Dictionary.  
  
"But who is there to talk to around here?" Holly asked herself. She looked around, and no one else seemed to be there. She tentatively spread her hand across the board. Immediately, the music stopped.  
  
"Could you keep your hand there, please?"  
  
Holly did, but she covered herself again and looked around frantically. "Who said that? Who's there?" she asked to no one.  
  
"There is no need to be nervous or bashful, my dear. I am a doctor." But it also sounded like a boy. "May I introduce myself?"  
  
Suddenly, something had come out of the fountain. It looked like a boy about Holly's age. But Holly noticed the slight point to his ears, not to mention the grayish skin and the seaweed-colored hair. The boy also had something around his head. It looked like a circlet made out of twigs, leaves, berries and bits of vine. Holly noticed that while the boy was up to his chest in water, he also appeared to be naked.  
  
He spoke. "Welcome to my home, dear. I like to call it Safe Haven."  
  
Holly turned her head away, but she could feel a slight tinge in her cheeks. "What are you?"  
  
"What do you want me to be?"  
  
Holly heard a rather bizarre noise. It almost like a liquid noise and a "crack!" at the same time, like ice that had been melted and refrozen in a split-second. Holly forced herself to look again. The boy still had gray skin, seaweed hair, pointed ears and the circlet, except that he was now an exact image of Holly.  
  
The whatzit changed again into an old man, and again into a beautiful woman of about thirty, and again into a boy of about seven, and again and again and again. And in all of its transformations, it always stayed waist-deep in water, with seaweed-colored hair, pointy ears, grayish skin, and that circlet. Finally, it changed back into the boy that Holly had first seen him as.  
  
"I simply thought that you might prefer this form." With that, he glided over and put his elbows up on the fountain's rim. Then, he propped his head up on his hands. He gave a wide grin. "Like your arm?"  
  
Holly involuntarily looked at her left arm again. "You did that?"  
  
"Amazing what a bit of the Cure will do, hmm?"  
  
Holly stared. "You're Niomo?"  
  
He shrugged. "Yes, some call me that." He cocked his head. "It seems that you still do not entirely trust me." Holly nodded slowly. Niomo grinned. "How about a peace offering?" He clapped his hands and pointed in a random direction.  
  
"Didyar!" he cried out.  
  
Suddenly, a tiny hole appeared in the soil where he had pointed. A thick bush promptly started growing from the hole and reached full size within five seconds. Green berries appeared on the leaves of the bush, and something bizarre appeared at its roots.  
  
"My clothes." Holly ran over to the bush and looked them over. They were her clothes all right. Neatly folded and everything. Her rucksack was even there, with everything intact.  
  
Holly looked back at Niomo. "Would you mind leaving while I get dressed?"  
  
Niomo grinned and shook his head. "All right, I guess I should respect the privacy of my guest. But if you are feeling hungry, might I recommend the berries?" And with that, he dived into the fountain, and the crystalline music returned.  
  
***  
  
When Holly had finished getting her clothes back on, she looked over at the fountain. It only looked like it was about three feet deep. That definitely wasn't enough for a teenaged boy to dive into without a trace. Holly looked into the fountain. She could see clear to the bottom, and there was no trace of Niomo. And the fountain appeared to be as deep on the inside as it was on the outside. The stream was just as clear. How bizarre.  
  
And then the bush caught Holly's attention. She went to it and plucked off a berry. She looked at it tentatively. It felt far too firm to be ripe. It was almost like she was squeezing a pebble. But still, Niomo had apparently healed her arm, and Tebo seemed to have trusted him. So, Holly popped the berry in her mouth.  
  
She never knew what hit her. When the berry entered her mouth and the juice hit her tongue, it was like the juice expanded. The juice grew and grew until Holly felt as if she was drowning in sweet syrup. She tried hard to swallow and swallow, but was finding it difficult to breathe.  
  
Holly collapsed to her knees, she fell onto her hands, and she threw up. A long, thick stream of dark purple syrup cascaded from her mouth. When her mouth and throat were empty, she rolled over onto her back, spread-eagled on the dark grass of Safe Haven.  
  
Her stomach felt full, but she was panting hard and her mouth felt incredibly dry. Suddenly, she felt her hand being guided toward something. Her palm met something that seemed like wood.  
  
"How did you like it?" Niomo was there, leaning against the fountain's rim, his hand around her wrist.  
  
He took his hand away as Holly fought to sit up. "What... was that?" Holly asked, still panting hard.  
  
Niomo took a berry. "Dewstones. They are as hard as a rock when they are dry, but their skin softens with water." He paused. "And their juice absorbs water."  
  
"Saliva," Holly panted. "I nearly drowned because the dewstone juice was absorbing my spit?"  
  
Niomo smiled. "You get used to the expansion, trust me." He faced Holly and his smile faded.  
  
"Now," he said. "May I ask why you came to see me?"  
  
Holly paused for a moment. "Could I ask something first?"  
  
"Certainly."  
  
"How did I get here? I remember being chased by toxes, but everything else is a blur."  
  
"The toxes chased you right into my territory," said Niomo. "You managed to stumble through just before the acid got to your foot."  
  
"And..." Holly gulped, "and what about Tebo?"  
  
Niomo blinked. "Do you mean the one stranded ashore? The one burned by tox acid?"  
  
Holly nodded. "Yes. It was a friend of mine. It rescued me from locans when I first came here."  
  
Niomo sighed and shook his head. "My Cure can do many miracles, but it could not have saved it."  
  
"It's really dead?" Holly asked.  
  
He nodded. "I am sorry."  
  
They bowed their head for a long moment. A moment of silence for Tebo.  
  
"Now," Niomo said. "If you have no further questions, I wish to know why you have come to me. Why would a human come here again?"  
  
"We need the Cure," Holly said. "My people and I." Holly then went on to explain everything that was going on. The boils, the epidemic, everything except Lync. As Holly was talking, she noticed how quickly Niomo's face had hardened.  
  
"Bloodbarb poisoning," Niomo spat.  
  
"That's what my master called it," said Holly.  
  
Niomo put a finger to his temple. "My dear, I have no idea how that could have happened. The poisoning could only have come from a plant native to the Forest. But the Forest is protected by magic. The Bridge is the only way in or out." He leaned over the rim of the fountain until his face was inches away from Holly's. His playful disposition was entirely gone. "Do you realize how serious this is? If a bloodbarb seed got past the shield, then imagine what else could!"  
  
"Entire swarms of locans tearing people to shreds...." The words just tumbled out of Holly's mouth, even though she was afraid of the idea.  
  
"My dear," Niomo said. "I know how dire this is, but if I grant you the Cure, I must still put you through a terrible ordeal."  
  
"I have to get out of here with every creature in the Forest hunting me down, right?" Niomo threw a shocked look at Holly. "Tebo told me."  
  
"Then I am glad that it died," Niomo replied. "Now I am spared the duty of killing it myself! Now, my dear, could you please hand me one of the empty vials in your pack?"  
  
It was an odd request, but Holly handed over a bottle. "And there's one more thing. The Cure needs more dewstone juice to work." He pointed to the dewstone bush. "Only one berry of juice is necessary to start the Cure, but the poisoning could have spread far by now. Take as many as you can while I work," he instructed. Holly nodded and went to the dewstone bush. Meanwhile, Niomo filled the bottle with water from his fountain, and then he crushed random flowers and grass stems, putting the supplies in the bottle as he went. He added a few dewstones to the mix, as well as one of the jewels from his fountain. Finally, he corked the bottle and slowly waved his hand around. Holly watched as she finished her packing.  
  
Niomo began to chant: "Ladidi dam dariram la di dam la di da di dariram la di da dam dam." He chanted the bizarre song once more, and the bottle erupted in a blinding green flash of light. When the light had died away and Holly had quit shielding her eyes, she had seen that the bottle was still glowing with an eerie, bright green aura.  
  
"Now listen, my dear," said Niomo. "I must ask you once more. Are you willing to put yourself at risk to deliver this Cure? Are you willing to leave the Forest and never come back?" Holly nodded. She already had too many evil memories related to the Forest. She knew that she would choose death over coming back.  
  
Niomo handed over the Cure. "Now leave. Cure the bloodbarb poisoning and never enter the Forest again."  
  
"Thank you, Niomo – " Holly started, but Niomo cut her off.  
  
"Leave!" She left. 


	5. A New Confidence

Chapter 5: A New Confidence  
  
Holly ran. She ran away from Safe Haven as fast as adrenaline could carry her. She ran towards the salvation of her parents and neighbors and fellow villagers. She ran away from every frightening image she had seen in the Forest. She ran from the locans and the toxes and the deaths of her mentor and her friend.  
  
She ran for the Painted Bridge.  
  
And Holly had guessed that the best way to the Bridge was to follow the stream that came from Safe Haven. She followed the stream with Lync until Tebo came along, and Tebo had sailed Holly down the exact same stream. It stood to reason that it led to the Painted Bridge, right?  
  
So, Holly ran along the stream, she waved her lantern around constantly, trying to luminate every patch of darkness. "After all," Holly reasoned, "Who knows what's in the shadows?"  
  
But the darkness was pressing in. If sleep could be made solid, then a curtain of it was surrounding Holly at all times. And the music. There was still that music that had been haunting Holly ever since she stepped across that Bridge.  
  
Holly's knees finally buckled. She felt as if she could run no more. It was like the darkness and the music had intertwined. Like they had become a single physical burden to Holly. They were blurring her senses beyond the help of her lantern. They were choking her, stuffing themselves down her throat.  
  
And there was one particular sound, like a string instrument of some sort, that was especially heavy. Like it was lulling her to sleep somehow. That sound was so beautiful. Holly knew that she was falling asleep, and that she would be killed if she fell asleep. But if she focused on that one bit of music, maybe death wouldn't be so bad.  
  
And then something caught her eye. It was a pair of wings. They were like miniature spider webs, made out of a silk that glowed pale blue. They were fluttering lightly right in front of Holly's eyes, but she couldn't see what the wings were attached to. She squinted hard at the space between the wings, but she still couldn't make out what was there. In fact, it was like the wings themselves were fading... and the string music was growing louder.  
  
She focused on the music until it filled her head again. There were the wings, plain as day. Holly stared at the wings for a while, and then she did something without even realizing it. She reached out and gently stroked a wing with her fingernail.  
  
The pain was excruciating. It was like Holly had stuck her entire hand into a bonfire. And it got worse.  
  
Instantly, the string sound had reached a deafening volume, and dozens of pairs of the wings had appeared out of nowhere. A second later, the wings were swarming around Holly, setting invisible fire to her flesh. Holly immediately got a second wind and started running again.  
  
She ran along the stream again. But the wings were faster. Holly let out scream after bloodcurdling scream as the wings branded her with immaterial red-hot irons. But the burning had a side effect: It boosted her adrenaline and forced her to move farther toward the Forest's exit.  
  
Nevertheless, every step towards that Bridge was filled with pain. And screaming. And visions of floating spider webs. And that accursed string music... Holly stopped.  
  
"Where's the music?" Holly wondered. "And what happened to the pairs of wings?"  
  
Indeed, the wings and their sounds had just disappeared. But there was a much more disturbing sound in the air. It was a very low-pitched sound made in a perfect rythym.  
  
"Oh no... "  
  
Holly cast her lantern around furiously. The sound was slowly growing louder, and there could be no mistaking what it was, but Holly could see nothing. Walking nervously, Holly continued to shed light every which way. Her movements grew jerkier and faster with every passing second. The rythmic noise became incredibly loud, and Holly grew wracked with nervous anticipation.  
  
She spun around one final time... and found herself face to face with a long wolf-like snout and a pair of tufted ears.  
  
Holly screamed from fear and surprise as she ducked. The locan's claws sailed above her head. She backpedaled furiously, her wide eyes staying trained on the locan at all times. And then she felt an impact a mere inch to her right.  
  
Another pair of locan claws were embedded into the groud next to her.  
  
Holly retreated to the stream. She was just in time to see a third locan enter the fray.  
  
The first one pounced toward Holly. She dodged him by a mere inch. She tried to run away, but she was cut off by the claws of another one. There was nothing for Holly to do but keep dodging. She could hear the snarls of the locans. She could smell their mouths watering. There was no mistake; the locans were enjoying every second of this.  
  
And then Holly felt something firm pressing into her back. She swung the rucksack off of her shoulders and into her hand. She dodged one more impressively sharp blade and pulled out... the box. Time seemed to stand still as Holly looked at the useless metal box given to her by Lync. But a loud thump had brought Holly back to reality.  
  
She saw the locan in midair, brandishing its claws. Holly shut her eyes, and turned her head away. By reflex, she brought the box to where it could shield her head.  
  
Holly felt the impact of claw meeting metal, and she also heard a loud, pathetic howl. She looked up in time to see the locan nursing a claw. It looked as if the claw was... dissolving somehow. The locans traded looks and bounced away into the darkness. Holly was saved, but how?  
  
She looked at the back of the box and saw some sort of white liquid dripping from the claw marks. Holly wiped a finger across the liquid and examined it closely. She smelled it, rubbed it between her fingers, and looked at it closely. There was no doubt.  
  
It was paint.  
  
Everything suddenly made sense to Holly. "Paint kills forest creatures," Holly realized. "That's why the Bridge is painted! Oh, Master Lync!"  
  
Holly quickly gathered her belongings and ran forward with a new confidence. The lantern was in her left hand and the box was in her right. More toxes and locans came, but the paint had easily dispatched them. A single drop of paint was all it took to scatter the ranks. Nevertheless, the toxes and locans and the wings had all gathered together to form an army behind the girl. The creatures had all been making their music throughout this grotesque parade, forming some bizarre kind of symphony.  
  
Before Holly knew it, her lantern had cast light on the Painted Bridge. By some miracle, the creatures had stopped chasing her. Holly looked all around, and there was absolutely nothing to stop her from going home. One thought crossed her mind as she approached the Bridge. "This is too easy."  
  
Then she heard the cymbals.  
  
Or at least, it was some short, soft noise that sounded like cymbals. Holly tightened her grip on the box. The cymbal noise sounded again as Holly looked with bated breath for the problem.  
  
At that moment, something had shown up in Holly's lantern. She didn't know what it was, but it was gray, thin, getting bigger by the moment and coming straight for Holly. Holly ducked out of the way only to hear a cymbal coming from where she had been just a second earlier.  
  
It was a tentacle.  
  
A gray, rubbery, spade-shaped tentacle that was withdrawing toward the stream under the Painted Bridge. Holly cast her lantern along the tentacle. Swimming before her was a dark-grey squid. On the surface this squid might have looked normal, but this particular squid had blood-red horns and tentacles that were at least fifty feet long. A second later, the squid had launched another tentacle at Holly. Except that this time, she was ready.  
  
She sidestepped out of the way again, and the tentacle slammed down to where she had been a second before. This time, however, Holly had quickly slammed the box down onto the tentacle, draining the remainder of the paint. The desired effect took place, with one small exception: The horned squid had washed the paint off into the stream before any real harm was done.  
  
Holly now had no weapons, and the squid had about six.  
  
The squid proceeded to throw its tentacles all over the place, destroying every nearby tree. It was also slapping Holly around quite successfully. Holly had done a good job of avoiding danger so far, but she took a real beating this time. After all, no one could dodge six moving assailants at once.  
  
"Wait a minute," thought Holly. "No one can dodge? That's it!"  
  
She waited until one of the tentacles had slammed down on the ground. And then she stood on it. "Hey!" Holly shouted. "I'm over here!"  
  
Sure enough, the squid raised a tentacle above Holly. Then, she dived out of the way, and watched as the squid pummeled its own tentacle. There was no reaction. Holly had a split second to register that the squid was fine. And then a tentacle swung over and blindsided her.  
  
Holly was sent flying until she hit a tree that was still standing. She slowly picked herself up, wincing from the hellish pain in her spine and her ribs. Then, Holly heard a low-pitched rythmic sound just behind her. "Not again!" she thought.  
  
The girl limped toward the squid, trying to outrun another locan. Unfortunately, this one wasn't taking its time like the last three. This one was leaping. And then Holly ducked. Without Holly in the way, her pursuing locan was knocked down and out by a tentacle.  
  
Options flashed through Holly's mind as she tried to keep dodging. She couldn't turn back, because there were locans and toxes and other creatures who would tear her apart for lack of paint. However, Holly couldn't go forward, as the Bridge was being guarded by a horned squid with impossibly long limbs, gradually pummeling her into oblivion. Worst of all, there was now nothing in her rucksack that could save her.  
  
"Or is there?"  
  
Holly swung her rucksack into her hand one more time and stuffed her hand in. All the while, she was blindly running toward the squid. She was being stung and slapped around and hurting from the pain in her midsection, but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting close enough to the stream....  
  
After the whole ordeal, Holly could never remember how it happened. She didn't know how she managed to do it amidst all the chaos. But there was one thing that she could clearly remember: The stream turning purple. She remembered the way that the stream had turned into thick purple syrup. She remembered the way that the horned squid was flailing around hopelessly, trying to free itself from its sticky environment. She didn't know how, but somehow, at least one dewstone came out of her rucksack and into the stream.  
  
Holly had a diversion, but the squid was no less dangerous. She ignored the pain and ran to the Bridge in adrenaline-fueled determination. But the squid was watching.  
  
As soon as she started crossing the bridge, she caught a glimpse of something. Holly had only seen it out of the corner of her eye, but she knew what it was. It was a tentacle. A tentacle taking one final try to kill its prey. The squid raised the tentacle above her, and struck with incredible force. Once more Holly rolled out of the way.  
  
A flash of light blinded her, but she heard the sickening crunch of wood.  
  
***  
  
For a moment, Holly did not recognize where she had landed. As her eyes adjusted she realized something: She was lying face-down on a road. It was a very familiar road, and she could see it clearly because....  
  
"Daylight," Holly said to herself. "How long has it been light out?"  
  
She looked back to the Painted Bridge. There was no longer anything there. Just some loose planks and splinters. Even more amazing, the stream was crystal-clear again. There was no sign that dewstone juice or vites or tebos or giant squids had ever been there. Niomo had said that the Painted Bridge was the only gateway into the Dark Black Forest. If that was true, then no one would ever witness the horrors of the Forest again.  
  
"Niomo," Holly thought. "The Cure! The dewstones! Are they still there?" Holly checked her rucksack. Her rucksack was still crammed to the brim with dewstones, and she could make out the green aura of the Cure.  
  
Holly sighed with relief. Everything would be okay now. Humans were safe from the Forest. The Forest was safe from humans. The bloodbarb poisoning would be Cured, Holly would become the new village doctor, and all would be well.  
  
But for some strange reason, something that Lync said was lingering in Holly's mind. Perhaps it wasn't what he said, but how he said it. He had sounded so foreboding, as if he knew that some unpredictable chain of events was going to happen. At the time, it was the last thing Holly had wanted to hear:  
  
"Into the Dark Black Forest."  
  
~ ~ ~ *** ~ ~ ~  
  
AN: And so, I beg you one final time: Please tell me what you think! 


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